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Premier Kathleen Wynne gets off on right foot with municipal leaders 0

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne addresses delegates at the annual general meeting of the Association of Municipalities Ontario at the London Convention Centre in London Ontario on Tuesday, August 19, 2014. (DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press)

The last time Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was in London, the occasion was a Liberal rally in May during the provincial election campaign. Back then, she was wearing her “campaign shoes” — a comfortable pair of low-cut, sparkly red Converse sneakers.

“I’m not campaigning!” she told The Free Press by way of explaining the business-like beige high heels she wore Tuesday while making the keynote address to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

But even though there’s no provincial election looming on the horizon, Wynne did come to the Forest City to campaign. Her message to delegates: Queen’s Park is your friend when it comes to infrastructure funding.

What was left unsaid is who the enemy is: The miserly Conservative government in Ottawa.

“It’s going to come down to how we work together,” she told the crowd of mayors, councillors and other municipal officials.

Her ostensible purpose in London was to tout her government’s Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund, a 10-year program that comes with a $100 million annual price tag. It is targeted at helping replace worn-down public works in small, rural and northern communities.

“We’re committed to investment that will grow our economy,” Wynne said, mentioning that much of the infrastructure that needs to be modernized was built in the post-war period, hence “baby-boom infrastructure.”

Earlier this month, Wynne called on the federal government to inject an additional $12 billion into the province’s coffers to cover what she called an “infrastructure gap.” The federal Tories, on the verge of balancing their own budget, responded — in the words of Finance Minister Joe Oliver — that Wynne is “divorced from fiscal reality.”

And one other Tory, the provincial critic for infrastructure, said Tuesday the entire exercise is a diversion.

“The premier is trying to divert attention away from her own inadequate infrastructure programs. She will likely blame the government of Canada for any municipal infrastructure applications she declines to fund,” Ted Arnott said.

But the words Wynne used the most in her 25-minute speech were “partnership” and “build.”

“We made a commitment to build Ontario up,” she said of the recently concluded election. “There’s no going it alone in a partnership,” she said at another point.

Wynne mentioned she had come to the AMO’s annual meeting 12 times in her political career. She also nodded to the cabinet ministers in the front row, adding that her cabinet has something like 240 years of municipal experience when all the heads are counted.

Afterward, those same ministers took part in a so-called bearpit session, answering questions from delegates on topics such as waste diversion and strategies to address homelessness.